Most retailers don’t think about their POS systems until there’s a service interruption, but these events can harm your business in multiple ways. Beyond the obvious impact of lost credit card revenue and increased risk of fraud, POS system downtime can impair productivity and the customer experience, further damaging your brand. Modern POS solutions are frequently connected to business and inventory integrations, critical software for locating inventory items, and purchase histories that become inaccessible when POS systems go offline.
The potential to damage customer relationships and employee performance makes POS system downtime a costly complication, and researchers suggest these costs are increasing yearly. A recent study by the Standish Group found that customers will abandon a checkout line altogether after five minutes of waiting. When one or more POS checkout lanes go down this can dramatically increase wait times and customer frustrations with your brand.
Is Downtime Just the Cost of Doing Business?
POS system downtime affects everyone in the commerce value chain, from your employees to your suppliers to your customers. Still, these events can be preventable when retailers proactively manage their POS estates.
This begins with having a single-access view of all devices across your enterprise, including POS terminals, tablets, computers, and peripherals, which can be monitored 24×7 using artificial intelligence (AI). In today’s connected world, a managed IT service provider can use AI and sensemaking technology to continuously monitor, detect and address the most minute interruptions in your high-performing POS devices. These advanced capabilities will expose memory spikes and other distress signals to prevent device failures.
When it comes to managing uptime for modern POS solutions, manual monitoring is not up to the task. It can lead to alert fatigue, even among experienced IT professionals, who repeatedly respond to systemic alerts while possibly missing other critical red flags. Conversely, AI minimizes false alerts and can pinpoint at-risk terminals that need to be replaced. With the right managed IT service provider, you will have a new terminal in place before downtime occurs.
Monitoring and Management for Legacy and New POS Systems
As retailers grow and scale their businesses, their device estates become a complex mix of legacy systems and next-generation solutions. These diverse infrastructures require a holistic management approach to democratize support uptime across all devices. For example, some new POS solutions offer a monitoring service for an added fee but are not typically networked into a ticketing system. In essence, this support will only cover the POS terminal itself and not the hardware and devices attached to it.
DecisionPoint Systems (DPS) will manage repairs, spare parts, and fast deployments by working in concert with your managers and IT professionals. DPS technicians can install new equipment within 24 hours, or sooner if you arrange it. For example, in the event that two of your stores need new POS terminals on the same day, our technical teams can be in two places at once.
This comprehensive support and monitoring will give you total visibility and less downtime.
Total Managed IT Services
With 100% POS uptime as the ultimate goal, achieving success will require a systemwide approach that extends beyond just the countertop POS system; you need a solution that expands to every networked device in your enterprise. This includes mobile POS devices for inventory control, curbside pickup, and buy online pick up in-store (BOPIS), and self-service kiosks in your device network.
Considering the investment you’ve made in your employees and network, it makes sense to give your in-house teams the support they need to manage and protect your assets. Advanced technologies, backed by nationwide support, will help your staff respond quickly as issues arise and troubleshoot problems that could otherwise lead to system-wide outages. In addition, DecisionPoint can augment your in-house team with resources, service desk options, and skilled professionals.
A Managed Service Provider You Can Trust
Despite their devastating impact, outages, brownouts, and other common causes of POS system downtime are not rare. A recent survey of IT professionals found 97 percent of respondents experienced system failures over the past 3 years, with annual averages of 19 brownouts and 15 IT outages. In today’s competitive, always-on, always-connected retail landscape, you need a partner you can trust to optimize your POS system uptime and keep you in the game.
DPS successfully manages POS and IT solutions for all types of enterprises, from small and midsize businesses to leading enterprise brands. Whether you are managing 500 or 300,000 assets, with our OnPoint ITSM system, you’ll have complete visibility into your IT and ticket statuses.
Contact us today for a free, no-obligation demo.
